According to the new study conducted by Econsultancy in collaboration with Adobe, 67% of companies indicate that they already have Social Media in their marketing plan. The survey involved 650 marketing professionals, who showed their interest in taking advantage of the high potential of social networks in their comprehensive marketing strategy as a way to connect with the consumer.
How are companies using Social Media?
Social networks are present in almost half of the marketing campaigns. It is a reinforcement to the conventional actions, increasing the scope of the message when moving it to the online medium.
64% of companies use Social Media to strengthen their brand presence.It is one of the main functions of social networks; they exert loudspeaker of the kindness of the brand. They have great power to viralizar content; not in vain 37% of companies already have a content strategy, which applies in this environment. The ultimate goal is to derive traffic to the corporate site; the previous steps that are used are to viralizar the content, extending the notoriety of the message, in order to increase its conversion ratio, generating buz and thereby increasing the number of fans for the brand, which can also be translated into leads.
1 in 4 companies uses social networks as a channel of customer service.The two-point world is the most social arena that exists; a place where users have to feel free to approach their brand, convey their opinions, suggestions and why not, their complaints. Nobody is perfect, the companies either; for this reason it is normal for companies to make mistakes, in their hands is to put all means at their fingertips to know firsthand the problem, the moment it arises, and to know how to react in time. In this way, you can alleviate the consequences of your wrong actions, and customers will feel taken care of, which will reinforce your confidence in the brand, a step prior to customer loyalty.
The platforms used mainly by companies to develop their Social Media strategy are, Facebook and Twitter in the same percentage (86%), followed by Youtube (59%) and LInkedIn (54%).
Do brands know how to measure social ROI?
64% of companies recognize that they need a deeper understanding of how to interpret the data. Analyzing the return on investment in Social Media remains somewhat complex. Only one-third of the participants in the study acknowledge measuring their activity in social networks, while 23% of those interviewed focused their analysis exclusively on the monitoring of brand presence,and their degree of conversion. There are still many barriers that hinder a comprehensive metric of company activity in social networks, not as in the case of other actions in the online medium, such as the study of web traffic or the follow-up of an SEM campaign.
In order to determine the success of the actions in Social Media, it is important to meet the following criteria:
- Establish measurable and quantifiable objectives.
- Be sure that an appropriate brand presence is being managed in the appropriate social channels. The choice of social networks in which to act must be chosen taking into account the characteristics of the target audience, the nature of the medium and the communication strategy of the company.
- Know how to measure the ROI, interpreting both the direct data, intimately related to a specific activity in Social Media, and indirect attributions. This will help you know the current state of the brand, its track record so far, in order to compare with future results.
- Have adequate means, both in terms of tools and personnel trained to perform these functions.
Know the medium, understand its limitations and take advantage of its potential.
What integration does Social Media have in your marketing plan?